A Day Of Two Halfs

First Half.
Friday night saw me messaging a friend/Lee and he asked me how was the river and is it fish able after the recent rains which we have had over the past month.  It hadn't rained hard for a few days now so the river was dropping slowly so it shouldn't be a problem on the winter level.  I met up with Lee at around 09:30am, Lee had already been there for about 30 minutes before me and had managed to pick off a few small fish ( a good sign. )  We were both fishing with 10ft 3# rods and a team of nymphs.  I started by fishing the run which Lee had already fished as he wondered off down to the run below.  I fished the fast and slack water where you would expect the fish to be with heavy nymphs but not a single touch.  After Lee had finished fishing his run with just as much success as myself we headed off up river to venture for WBT.  The next run was a long fast run with a big boulder causing some breaks in the water at the top of the run which i knew hold fish so i gave the run to Lee.  Same as the run before he fished the fast and slack water at the sides with heavy nymphs but not a single touch, so I suggested that he switches from a 3ml tungsten to a lighter 2.5ml to see if the change in presentation will entice the fish to taking the nymph.  Within a few casts his sight indicator shot under the water like lightning but didn't hook up into the fish :-/  But unfortunately a few casts later he had his nymphs stuck in a tree hehehe :-p  Lee then insisted that I carry on fishing the run while his line is in the tree just in case he spooks the fish whilst getting his nymphs ( I was more than happy to oblige :) )  After a few casts and not taking much attention to my indicator whilst talking to Lee and onlookers I failed to notice my indicator slip away and only noticed i had a fish on when I felt the tip of my rod bounce.  I struck and the fish was on luckily, however a few head shakes and a leap later it soon set itself free ( DOH ) After hooking into that fish id thought id give Lee a hand in retrieving his flies.  What a mistake as after I did so and made my way back across river I stood on a loose rock and I was about to float down river but luckily Lee was there to grab my bag.  As you can imagine Lee was in stitches :-/  We then fished a few more runs but not a single fish to our names.  We were starting to wonder if all the fish had been taken down river from the recent flood :(

Second Half
After the disastrous mornings fishing i decided to take Lee to a spot which the fish usually  tend to stay after a good flood.  It was 12:00pm and we could see a good hatch of large dark olive and large brook dunns and the fish, sand martins and swifts were taking full advantage of them.  The fish were coming up to rise exposing their whole back fins and head slurping away at anything which passed them in the fast water.  We both approached the water carefully not to spook any rising fish.  In my section of the run I could see some really nice rising so I cast my team of nymphs around 5ft above the rising fish.  First cast and I was straight into a fish leaping and trying to run off but it was only a little fish around 1/2lb but done some damage as all the other fish which were rising were now not >:(  So i stood still and didn't make and casts at fish  for around 5 minutes and it payed off as the fish were rising again :)  I noticed a really nice fish rising around 10ft which looked to be around 3lb and gave it a go ;)  A few casts later and the fish just wasn't interested so I placed my fly a little further up river than i normally would and as the nymphs came down river my indicator softly slipped away and I struck.  The fish just shot off down river straight away as I held on for dear life as it stripped more and more line from my reel.  The fish finally slowed down so that i could put a little bit of pressure on it.  It leaped god knows how many times and gave some ferocious head shakes which I thought was going to snap me off for sure :-/  However around 5 minutes later the fish was safely in the net :)
A nice 2lb WBT.


After myself catching that fish id thought id sit back and watch Lee fish for 5 minutes.  I asked him to fish the fast water at the top of the run as previous visits to this spot has proven to me that the bigger fish hold up there.  He fished the run thourally for about 10 minutes without a nudge until he fished his nymphs tight up against a wall and he hooked up into a really good fish and when he hooked up into his fish he spooked a fish and it lept out of the water and must have been at least 4lb easily :-o and Lee's fish didn't hang around long after the big trout hit the water and sped off down river.  It was a repeat of me earlier when i hooked into my fish.  all you can do is hold on and let the fish take line ;)  It was giving Lee massive head shakes and when it couldn't get its own way it gave us some awesome aerobatic shows.  Lee done really well with the fish as he was using really light leader.  After a good fight an exhausted fish ( and angler hehe ) it was safely in the landing net and after a nice picture it was sent back to where it belongs in the wild :)
Lee with his 2lb+ fish


We carried on fishing then run out and a few above too for the next hour or so picking off another 3 2lb+ fish aswell as some smaller ones in between before we had to leave for the day.  However a really good days fishing and great company also :)

Here are a few more pics of the fish which we caught ;)